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Progress and Poverty
:Originally taken from Wikipedia entry on Progress and Poverty Progress and Poverty was written by Henry George in 1879. The book is a treatise on the cyclical nature of an industrial economy and its remedies. Context The book basically seeks to explain why poverty is virtually unknown in primitive societies but widespread wherever there is great wealth. George saw how technological and social advances (including education and public services) increased the value of land (natural resources, urban locations, etc) and, thus, the amount of wealth that can be demanded by the owners of land from those who need the use of land. In other words: the better the public services, the higher the rent is (as more people value that land).The tendency of speculators to increase the price of land faster than wealth can be produced to pay has the result of lowering the amount of wealth left over for labor to claim in wages, and finally leads to the collapse of enterprises at the margin, with a ripple effect that becomes a serious business depression entailing widespread unemployment, foreclosures, etc. In Progress and Poverty, George examines various proposed strategies to prevent business depressions, unemployment and poverty, but finds them unsatisfactory. As an alternative he proposes his own solution: a single tax on land values. This would be a tax on the annual value of land held as private property. It would be high enough to allow for all other taxes -- especially upon labor and production -- to be abolished. George argued that a land value tax would give landowners an incentive to use the land in a productive way, thereby employing labor and creating wealth, or to sell the land at affordable prices to those who would themselves use the land in a productive way. This shift in the bargaining balance between resource owners and laborers would raise the general level of wages and ensure no one need suffer involuntary poverty. Soon after its publication, over three million copies of Progress and Poverty were bought. Links to Online Version :Links to an online version of Progress and Poverty, (plus supplements), provided by The Henry George Institute at the henrygeorge.org website Prefaces * Publisher’s Foreword by Cliff Cobb * Editor’s Preface by Bob Drake * Author’s Preface to the Fourth Edition Introduction: The Problem of Poverty Amid Progress First Part: Wages and Capital * 1. Why Traditional Theories of Wages are Wrong * 2. Defining Terms * 3. Wages Are Produced By Labor, Not Drawn From Capital * 4. Workers Not Supported By Capital * 5. The True Functions of Capital :Supplements: ::"Economics" and Political Economy ::Miniquiz with Answers Second Part: Population and Subsistence * 6. The Theory of Population According to Malthus * 7. Malthus vs. Facts * 8. Malthus vs. Analogies * 9. Malthusian Theory Disproved :Supplements: ::Does Overpopulation Cause Poverty? ::Malthus: Still Wrong After All These Years by Lindy Davies Third Part: The Laws of Distribution * 10. Necessary Relation of the Laws of Distribution * 11. The Law Of Rent * 12. The Cause of Interest * 13. False Interest * 14. The Law Of Interest * 15. The Law Of Wages * 16. Correlating The Laws of Distribution * 17. The Problem Explained :Supplements ::Capital, Interest, and Profits ::The Law of Rent ::A Closer Look at the Law of Rent Fourth Part: The Effect of Material Progress on the Distribution of Wealth * 18. Dynamic Forces Not Yet Explored * 19. Population Growth and Distribution of Wealth * 20. Technology and the Distribution of Wealth * 21. Speculation :Supplement ::Land Speculation ::Speculation Abolished Fifth Part: The Problem Solved * 22. The Root Cause of Recessions * 23. The Persistence of Poverty Despite Increasing Wealth :Supplements ::[http://www.henrygeorge.org/dog.htm The Dog in the Manger: Who Are the Land Speculators?] ::Land Speculation and the Boom/Bust Cycle ::Land Rent and Selling Price ::Can We Eliminate the Boom/Bust Cycle? Sixth Part: The Remedy * 24. Ineffective Remedies * 25. The True Remedy :Supplement ::Henry George's Remedy: Is It Right? Will It Work? Seventh Part: Justice of the Remedy * 26. The Injustice of Private Property In Land * 27. The Enslavement of Labor * 28. Are Landowners Entitled to Compensation? * 29. History of Land as Private Property * 30. History of Property in Land in the US :Supplement ::Definition of Rent Eighth Part: Application of the Remedy * 31. Private Property in Land is Inconsistent with the Best Use of Land * 32. Securing Equal Rights To Land * 33. The Canons of Taxation * 34. Endorsements And Objections :Supplements ::How do we divide the fruits of labor? ::What Happens When Communities DON'T Collect the Rent? ::The Aftermath of Proposition 13 ::Taxes: What Are They Good For? Ninth Part: Effects of the Remedy * 35. The Effect on Production * 36. The Effect on The Distribution of Wealth * 37. The Effect on Individuals and Classes * 38. Changes in Society :Supplements ::Land Rent and Selling Price ::Land Rent and the Urban Dilemma ::Land Rent and the Environment Tenth Part: The Law of Human Progress * 39. The Cause of Human Progress * 40. Differences in Civilizations * 41. The Law of Human Progress * 42. How Modern Civilization May Decline * 43. The Central Truth * 44. Conclusion: The Individual Life Afterword: Who Was Henry George? * by Agnes George deMille External links * [http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/George/grgPP.html Progress and Poverty online text. Also: http://www.progressandpoverty.org] * [http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm Progress and Poverty online text. Also http://www.henrygeorge.org/] Category:Literature